In Honor Of Veterans Of All Wars

In honor of and in thanksgiving to all veterans who have done their duty by serving our country in the US military, whether in war, or in relatively peaceful times.

A Prayer for Veterans' Day

O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Thanksgiving for Heroic Service, BCP 1979

Irony Of Ironies!

My friend Oyster at Your Right Hand Thief pulled the quote below from a conservative blogger, and I could not resist stealing it.

"Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn't raise his standards, he will exceed Bush's total before he is inaugurated."

-- John Hindraker, of the conservative Power Line blog, Time magazine's 2004 "Blog of the Year".

I dislike giving anyone at Power Line a link, but I feared that you may not believe that Hindraker said the words above. If you can trust me without clicking the link, then please don't click.

IT PLEASES

Far above the dome
Of the capitol -
It's true!
A large bird soars
Against white cloud,
Wings arced,
Sailing easy in this
Humid Southern sun-burned
breeze -
the dark suited policeman
watches tourist cars -

And the center,
The center of power is nothing!
Nothing here.
Old white domes,
Strangely quiet people,

Earth-sky-bird patterns
Idly interlacing

The world does what it pleases.

Gary Snyder

Update On Evan From Ruth

Thank you again for running the prayer request about Evan. I wanted to send you an update sooner, but his mother had trouble posting to her Internet journal until this morning. The transfusion went smoothly. Now it's just a waiting game--two or three weeks until we know how his body responds.

In the meantime, he is struggling with nausea, constipation, and a bad infection. The need for prayer continues.

Thank you for being part of the network supporting him.
Ruth

Not To Rub It In Or Anything....

Doug sent me this one, too. Oh man. I like it so much that I may have to change the picture on the sidebar. Or shall I simply line them up one under the other? What if more gorgeous posters come in? Would ten lined up be over the top?

Was It Good For You?

Frank Rich in the New York Times:

On the morning after a black man won the White House, America’s tears of catharsis gave way to unadulterated joy.

Our nation was still in the same ditch it had been the day before, but the atmosphere was giddy. We felt good not only because we had breached a racial barrier as old as the Republic. Dawn also brought the realization that we were at last emerging from an abusive relationship with our country’s 21st-century leaders. The festive scenes of liberation that Dick Cheney had once imagined for Iraq were finally taking place — in cities all over America.
....

But Palin’s appeal wasn’t overestimated only because of her kitschy “American Idol” star quality. Her fierce embrace of the old Karl Rove wedge politics, the divisive pitting of the “real America” against the secular “other” America, was also regarded as a sure-fire winner. The second most persistent assumption by both pundits and the McCain campaign this year — after the likely triumph of racism — was that the culture war battlegrounds from 2000 and 2004 would remain intact

This is true in exactly one instance: gay civil rights. Though Rove’s promised “permanent Republican majority” lies in humiliating ruins, his and Bush’s one secure legacy will be their demagogic exploitation of homophobia. The success of the four state initiatives banning either same-sex marriage or same-sex adoptions was the sole retro trend on Tuesday. And Obama, who largely soft-pedaled the issue this year, was little help. In California, where other races split more or less evenly on a same-sex marriage ban, some 70 percent of black voters contributed to its narrow victory.

And to my shame:

The only states where the G.O.P. increased its percentage of the presidential vote relative to the Democrats were West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas.

No wonder we're last in almost everything.

Read the entire column. Rich is nearly always good.

H/T to PJ Hussein.

Miriam Makeba - Rest In Peace

From the New York Times:

Miriam Makeba, a South African singer whose voice stirred hopes of freedom among millions in her own country though her music was formally banned by the apartheid authorities she struggled against, died overnight after performing at a concert in Italy on Sunday. She was 76.
....

Widely known as “Mama Africa,” she had been a prominent exiled opponent of apartheid since the South African authorities revoked her passport in 1960 and refused to allow her to return after she traveled abroad. She was prevented from attending her mother’s funeral after touring in the United States.

You know that you're a force, when your music is banned. So many heroes out of South Africa. Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Steve Biko, and Nadine Gordimer.

She was particularly renowned for her performances of songs such as what was known as the Click Song — named for a clicking sound in her native tongue — or “Qongoqothwane,” and Pata Pata, meaning Touch Touch in Xhosa. Her style of singing was widely interpreted as a blend of black township rhythms, jazz and folk music.

Miriam, may you rest in peace and rise in glory. We were blessed by your beautiful music.

Almighty God, our Father in heaven, before whom live all who die in the Lord: Receive our sister Miriam into the courts of your heavenly dwelling place. Let her heart and soul now ring out in joy to you, O Lord, the living God, and the God of those who live. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Proposition 8 And African-Americans

Last week on "The Rachel Maddow Show", I saw what I think to be excellent commentary on the reasons for the successful passage of Proposition 8, which bans same sex marriage in California. African-Americans make up only 10% of the population in California, but they turned out in large numbers to vote for Obama, while, at the same time, they voted for the ban on gay marriage. According to exit polls, around 70% voted in favor of the ban.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University, explains why she believes this happened. The video is five minutes long, but it's worth watching.

By the way, Rachel Maddow is off to a great start with her new show. I watch her often. The pace of her show is slower than some of the other news shows. She gives her guest commentators more time to talk. She's smart, witty, and an all-around attractive personality.

Always Check Your Children's Homework

Mom works at Home Depot and is selling a shovel. Don't blame me, blame Doug.

"Fair And Tender Ladies?"

From the left: Mary, Georgianne, and Mimi

Grandpère took the picture, and he did a pretty good job of it.

Georgianne Nienaber, who wrote the much too flattering article about me for The Huffington Post, introduced me to Mary, pictured above, who lives right nearby. Imagine! During the everlasting election period, I could have had a real person to talk to about politics in this area, without ending up in a screaming match. Mary is a singer, and quite a good singer and composer. Next month, Georgianne and I will go to to hear Mary sing in New Orleans. When we were talking about going, Georgianne said, "... if Tom will let you go". I nearly fell on the floor laughing at that remark. As though I needed Grandpère's permission!

The other night, Mary, Georgianne, and I went out to eat in downtown Houma at Café Milano, an Italian restaurant, which is quite good. Houma is a few miles south of Thibodaux.

Below is a blurry picture of GP and I at the restaurant on another occasion. I forgot all about taking pictures in the restaurant that evening, because we jumped right in and hardly stopped talking long enough to eat our dinner. I believe I talked the most, but I'd let my dinner companions weigh in on that. I took home a box of leftovers which were enough for a meal the next day.

Mary and I, both being native south Louisianaians, bonded rather quickly. I'm afraid that poor Georgianne was allocated listener status for too much of the time. And she paid for the meal! She said she was enjoying watching the two of us. Mary and I knew some of the same people, as is inevitable in a town the size of ours.

 

Georgianne spent time in Congo, and the miserable plight of many of the people in the country and the constant danger for the journalists who try to tell their stories lies very close to her heart. Her latest article at The Huffington Post, titled "The World Cannot Look Away" on the people and the journalists in the eastern part of Congo is heartbreaking.

As America jubilantly celebrates the election of Barack Obama and the freedoms that predicated this historic moment, we should take pause and realize that nothing has changed for war-ravaged Central Africa. As writers for OffTheBus pack up our laptops and head on to other assignments, journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are working under deadly conditions.
....

"Our colleagues covering the conflict in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo are incredibly vulnerable to violence and abduction," said Gabriel Baglo, director of the IFJ Africa office.
....

"The world cannot look away again as thousands suffer in eastern Congo. The people of Congo deserve more," said Juliette Prodhan, head of Oxfam in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "We have had fine words and important meetings but these must now be put into action by providing additional troops to safeguard the people. We need more urgency, more action and more commitment."
....

Congolese Tutsi rebels under General Laurent Nkunda have captured villages in eastern Kivu province, which has seen over 1.5 million refugees in the months leading up to the latest offensive. MONUC (UN Mission in DR of Congo) reports the rebels are breaking their own ceasefire.

Mary contributed a song to Congo's Angels a CD described as:

A collection of songs and poems for our sisters, mothers and daughters of the Congo.

This compilation CD is comprised of songs and poems donated y the artists to benefit FRIENDS OF THE CONGO. To learn more about FOC and its work please visit this link.

Mary's is a folk song, titled "Apollo". It's not Cajun music, but, nevertheless, she sounds like a daughter of the bayou to me. The CD is a nice mix of folk, country, R&B, (Irma Thomas), gospel, and poems, just an all-around good CD, by various artists giving of their gifts to a noble cause.

The title of this post is taken from one of the songs on the CD by Caroline Herring or from the novel by Lee Smith of the same name. Take your pick. Are we fair and tender ladies? I leave that to you.

If any of you would like to read Georgianne's article about me, here's the link. I'm embarrassed to continue to link to something so "about me", but it's good for Georgianne to get the traffic. Really.